Mitchell: Endowment funds need to benefit patients as well as staff

An FOI request by Margaret Mitchell MSP into the amount spent on gifts and prizes by local health boards has revealed that several NHS Boards spend tens of thousands of pounds every year on gifts. NHS Highland for example has spent £322,723 on gifts and prizes over the last five years – an average of £64,544 a year.

Commenting on the FOI results, MSP for Central Scotland Margaret Mitchell said:

"Last year, £51,000 was spent by NHS Highland on contributions for staff Christmas parties. In addition to this, health bosses there also allow staff a £25 payment to enjoy a departmental night out. Furthermore, in 2010/11 NHS Lanarkshire spent £68,430 on long service awards and retirement presentations for staff. This spend comes from the relevant board's Endowment Fund which are funds donated for the benefit of patients and staff.

"Whilst it is natural that NHS Boards will want to thank and motivate members of staff for their service, nonetheless the Endowment Funds are there for the benefit of both staff and patients. From the FOI results there is no documentation of what was spent on gifts to patients. For example, the only gifts centrally recorded by NHS Lanarkshire are long service awards and retirement presentations and NHS Highland stated that although there may have been other contributions from the Endowment Fund it had to decline to provide this information due to the excessive cost of compliance as laid down in section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act.

"We need to ensure the best use of Endowment Funds to make sure that both staff and patients enjoy the benefit of these funds. Before, therefore, such large sums are spent on gifts to staff, careful consideration should be given to ensure this is the best and most appropriate use of the money especially in these austere times."

1.) Two other health boards, NHS Shetland and NHS Tayside also provided information on gifts and prizes which came from Endowment Funds, however, their overall totals were by contrast much lower than their counterparts in Highland and Lanarkshire. For instance NHS Tayside spent a relatively modest £1874 on staff prizes over the last five years and NHS Shetland has spent a total of £43,114 over the last five years on annual awards to staff through its Endowment Fund and specific bequests, such as the John Sinclair Memorial Award (which comes from £50,000 donated in 1999 to provide learning opportunities for staff involved in care of sick children).

2.) The majority of health boards responded that they had not spent any money on gifts over the last five years. The only health board that provided information about spending on gifts and prizes, that did not come from Endowment Funds, was NHS Fife, which last year spent £12,902 on a range of prizes as part of its programme to encourage people in Fife to give up smoking. The costs of these were managed through NHS Fife's Health Promotion – Smoking Cessation service. The amount spent by NHS Fife in this area has been on the increase over the last four years, from £788 spent in 2008/09 to the £12,902 spent last year.

Commenting on this, Margaret said:

'I hope that this initiative will have proved to have been a good example of where funding has been targeted on preventative spend successful in its objective to encourage people to give up smoking.'

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